Your 5 favourite Northern Territory parks

The Northern Territory is a popular destination for both international and domestic visitors alike, featuring stunning scenery and wildlife galore.

Given its smaller population and distance from the bustling East Coast population centres, the NT is a hotbed for parks and reserves that all capitalise on Australia’s natural heritage. Importantly, it is also a key region for traditional owners, who have continuously maintained stewardship over much of the land for tens of thousands of years.

Wild recently asked the Parks and Wildlife Commission NT for some insight into its visitation figures as well as the reasons why their popular parks get so much attention. From this information we’ve compiled a list of the Territory’s top five parks, together with quotes from the professionals who work most closely with these majestic landscapes.

1. Casuarina Coastal Reserve

The urban park Casuarina Coastal Reserve at Dripstone Cliff has realised more than 760,000 visitors per year recently and has been named the location of one Australia’s best beaches and best birdwatching sites. Easily accessed in a central location, the reserve covers eight kilometres of coast from Rapid Creek to Buffalo Creek right in the heart of Darwin.

According to chief district ranger Dean McAdam the reserve includes “a great naturalness and variety of habitats, including intertidal zones, reefs, woodlands, coastal dunes, deciduous vine thickets, monsoon forests and mangroves”.

“The reserve’s attraction and appeal is enhanced by its proximity to the northern suburbs and the variety of recreational opportunities available,” McAdam said. “It is also rich in cultural history, being significant to the local Larrakia people and as a World War II historical site.”

The beach at Casuarina Coastal Reserve is ecologically important as roost for migratory seabirds and as a nesting site for turtles.

2. Litchfield National Park

It might not be as central as the reserve in first place, yet 300,000-plus is no mean feat for a park to achieve in one year, and that score places Litchfield National Park. This figure continues to increase at around five per cent annual, said Top End district manager Lincoln Wilson, who thinks that the park’s growing popularity can be put down to “location, experiences available, infrastructure and affordability”.

“Litchfield provides visitors with a diversity of experiences and is located just a couple of hours away from Darwin,” he said. “Featuring sweeping ladnscapes, geological formation, spectacular waterfalls, swimming sites, overnight and short walk options as well as fauna and flora in abundance, the park appears to visitors of all ages and experience.”

Wilson also highlights the scenic nature of Buley Rockhole, which has previously been listed as one of the top ten natural swimming pools in the entire world, and with low camp fees and no park entry fees, it’s affordable for just about all-comers.

3. Nitmiluk National Park

Visitation of just over 250,000 puts this destination right at the top of the pile. Most famous for Katherine Gorge, here is another place for tourists to literally bathe in nature.

Peter Ross, chief district ranger, said the majority of visitors “check out the first two gorges within the Katherine Gorge system before taking a boat tour or going for a swim in the Leliyn plunge pool.”

“The park features 100 kilometres of hiking trails, including day hikes along the Baruwei Lookout and Loop Walk and Windolf Walk,” he said. “Campsites alongside pristine waterholes are also a prime feature of the park.”

Also available are scenic flights above some of the park’s most spectacular features, while examples of the local Jawoyn people’s rock art can be found as well.

“Visitors may even catch a glance at the freshwater crocodiles inhabiting the Katherine and Edith Rivers that run through the park.”

4. Watarrka National Park

Melissa Merry, ranger for Watarrka National Park, sees many of the area’s 220,000-plus visitors arrive to witness its unique surrounds.

“The vast majority come to walk the six-kilometre Rim Walk around Kings Canyon, which takes them through amazing geological formations such as sandstone domes and sheer sandstone cliffs before moving down into the Garden of Eden,” Merry said.

The Garden of Eden is one of a few places where ‘living fossil’ plant species co-exist with a wide diversity of wildlife. Lucky visitors may spot black-footed rock wallabies, perenties, western bowerbirds, budgerigars and even black breasted buzzards.

For the hard work Merry and her ranger colleagues have put in to managing the park, they were all awarded Ranger Team of the Year at the NT Ranger Awards of 2014.

5. Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve

Finally, the Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve draws more than 180,000 annual visitors and stands as testament to the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line that once formed the central nervous system of Australian communications. It is also the site of one of the first permanent European settlements, making it one of the most important historic sites in Central Australia, according to chief district ranger Wayne Gaskon.

“The reserve contains and protects some of the best examples of restored buildings from the early settlement era of the Northern Territory, in a setting that has, to a large extent, survived relatively undisturbed,” Gaskon explained.

“The area also carries great importance for the local Arrernte Aboriginal people for thousands of years, with many sites of significance in the reserve itself. As such, the reserve is run in partnership with local Aboriginal people and it continues to be a point of engagement between western and local Arrernte cultures.”

Tourists to Alice Springs who visit the reserve may choose to cool down in the popular waterhole if they’re lucky enough to arrive when there’s actually water in it. Facilities include an open recreation area that’s a favourite for picnics and barbecues, while a large network of walking and mountain bike trails extend for 27 kilometres throughout the park. For the serious bushwalker, these trails also serve as the start/finishing point of the iconic, 223-kilometre Larapinta Trail.

“Early morning visitors are likely to see euros, rock wallabies, dingoes and a vast array of bird life along these trails,” said Gaskon.

We may have rated these destinations according to their visitation numbers, but that’s just the simplest objective way to do so. What order would you place these parks in and why? Have we missed any? Email us your feedback at wild@primecreative.com.au.